Blogging — Dead or Alive

Just about every site you visit has a blog… and whether or not it is effective as a marketing tool is up to the blogger in charge of it. Blogging is only as dead or alive as you make it. It can be simple to keep a blog, but must be taken seriously.

The thing that makes blogging so popular is that it offers an insight into a company in a more candid, casual way than traditional marketing channels. It can go in any direction, and can take on any tone, whether for the blog as a whole or for an individual post. Blogs are the voice of a company.

When you visit a website for a business you’re interested in learning about, there are typically a couple pages that will give you exactly what you want: the about us, and the blog. The about us is usually your concise paragraph telling people what they want to hear in a few fancy words. But when you really want to learn about a company, you click on their blog.

Infrequent Posts: SO DEADIf you click on the blog and the most recent post was seven months ago, and prior to that another eight months, you have some great insight into the company. They either started a blog because it was trendy, but didn’t have the follow through, or they’re too busy to keep things current. Either way, this reflects poorly on the business. It is better to have no blog than it is to have a blog that is half assed. Blogs should be current and up to date.

Regular Postings: STILL ALIVEA blog that is regularly updated can be a valuable resource to anyone that reads it. As a reader, you know that the company you’re dealing with stays current and has the time and resources to create an informative blog. Keeping a blog updated allows a business to stay on top of current events, offer insight on trends as they emerge and shows you that they are on top of their game.

Pointless Posts: SO DEADPosting for the sake of posting is a waste of time for readers, and whoever the poor sap is who has to write them. If a business has a current blog, but the content serves no purpose for readers, it’s really only going to reflect poorly on the company. If you’re reading it, you’re going to wonder why you should keep reading, why you should do business with that company, and how else are they going to feed you bull crap beyond the pages of their blog.

Valuable Information: STILL ALIVEHaving a blog that you turn to read because it is interesting becomes a very valuable resource for the business that runs it. It doesn’t even necessarily have to be fascinating, but if it provides information that can help you learn about a product or a way to incorporate it into your life, you’ll begin to gain a trust for that company. If the content is valuable, the brand associated with it begins to earn a positive reputation, making the blog a very valuable tool for both the reader and the brand.

The Ramblings of a Madman Post: SO DEADIt’s super easy to get off track in the world of a blog. The easy flow of mind style of this type of writing makes it very easy to move from a relevant topic to the depths of the brain that you don’t ever want or need to visit. If you read a blog that leaves you perplexed about what you just read, or makes you question the sanity of the brand associated with it, you’ve encountered a blog that is a hindrance to the company running it.

Relevant Ramblings: STILL ALIVERamblings, however, aren’t always bad. If they are relevant to the reader or to the brand, they can provide an insight to a company or a different perspective that can’t be duplicated through other means of marketing. These ramblings, as long as they make sense and are relevant, could offer an interesting point of view and voice that makes you want to tell your friends about the blog or the brand, and spark conversation in the world of social media.

Click Bait: SO DEADClick bait is the dregs of the internet. Bloggers who use a catchy title to lure people into reading a blog followed by an anticlimactic end of the story make people have a negative associate with your brand. And spreading a blog over several pages just to gain clicks is an obvious way for you to be able to tell that the business is concerned with how many clicks they can earn, not how they want to help you or be a valuable resource.

Posts Designed to Increase Traffic: STILL ALIVEBlogs, are of course, designed to increase traffic to a website. They are written for people to read them. The more people that read them, the better for the brand association. And there is nothing wrong with that. But it should be done an honest way. You will want to read a blog that provides interesting content, valuable resources and quality information. Such a blog gains traffic organically, and because it serves a purpose to the reader.

Blogs are a hindrance when neglected and abused, but a help when done rightThe key to a successful blog is keeping it current and providing valuable information to readers. It will serve as a benefit to a brand, whereas the forgotten blog only looks sloppy. As a business, you must know if you have the resources to maintain an active, interesting and valuable blog. If you don’t, then don’t half ass it, if you’re not going to do it right, don’t do it at all. A blog is only as valuable as those running it. Stay current, stay informative, let your voice be heard, and you’ll have blog that is a valuable content marketing resource.